Maslow's Hierarchy for Social Media | How to Build Real Substack Engagement

Maslow's Hierarchy for Social Media | How to Build Real Substack Engagement

I’ve been deep in social media for over 20 years. And one word still gets under my skin every time I see it thrown around: engagement. Most advice you’ll find online treats engagement like a metric. Likes, opens, replies, shares. Hit the numbers, grow the list. But that’s not what engagement actually is. Engagement is what happens when a reader starts to feel something about you. And you can’t manufacture that with a call to action. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. What I landed on is a framework I’m calling the hierarchy of engagement. It’s based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Five levels. Each one has to be built before the next one is possible. Here’s what it looks like, from the ground up. GET ACCESS TO THE PRESENTATION https://robbins-hierarchy.netlify.app/ [https://robbins-hierarchy.netlify.app/] Level One: Trust and Dependability Everything starts here. Before a reader cares about your voice, your takes, or your community, they need to know you’re going to show up. Consistently. On time. With accurate information. This sounds simple. It isn’t. A lot of writers skip this step because they’re already thinking about content quality or monetization. They launch before they have a system. They publish twice in January, disappear in February, come back in March with an apology post. Every missed issue is a trust withdrawal. And trust is slow to build, fast to lose. Reliability is a design choice. It’s not a personality trait. Writers who publish consistently have systems behind them. Editorial calendars. Batched drafts. Pre-publish checklists. They treat the publishing date like a deadline, because it is one. If you haven’t launched yet, write your first four issues before you post the first one. Build the habit before you build the audience. Level Two: Authenticity Once readers know they can count on you, they start paying attention to what you actually say. This is where most sports writers still get it wrong. They write like a press release. They report what happened. They recap the game. They hedge every opinion. Readers are sophisticated. They can tell when someone is performing versus when someone is actually saying something. Your specific voice is the only thing no one else has. There are thousands of sports newsletters. There’s only one written by you, with your obsessions, your history, your way of reading a trade. That’s the product. Write one true, debatable take per issue and defend it. Include something personal, even if it’s only tangentially related to sports. Audit your writing and remove any sentence that sounds like it came from a brand account. Authenticity is what makes readers stay past the first month. It’s also what drives paid conversions. People don’t pay for content. They pay for a person they trust. Level Three: Community and Fellowship This is where things start to compound. Once readers trust you and believe you’re real, some of them will start to feel like they belong to something. They’re not just reading your newsletter. They’re part of the group of people who read your newsletter. That’s a different kind of loyalty. At this stage, your job shifts. You’re not just a writer anymore. You’re building infrastructure for connection. Comment sections. Polls. Recurring features where readers can participate. A Discord or group chat if you’re ready for it. End every other issue with a question and actually respond to the first ten replies. Feature a reader take or prediction in your content. Create community rituals, a weekly pick challenge, a debate of the week, a reader power rankings. When readers are connected to each other, they don’t just follow you. They protect the community. Churn drops. Referrals climb. A reader might skip a post, but they won’t leave the group. Level Four: Validation and Acknowledgement People need to feel seen. Not in a vague, inspirational way. Literally seen. They want to know the writer reads their replies. That their opinion landed somewhere. That they’re more than a number on your subscriber count. When a reader changes your mind, say so publicly. Quote readers by name. Reference a specific reply that added nuance to your thinking. Send a personal thank you to every new paid subscriber for the first 90 days. This level is what separates newsletters people like from newsletters people can’t imagine canceling. When a reader feels acknowledged, canceling starts to feel like leaving a relationship. That’s a different kind of retention than anything a discount code can buy. Level Five: Fulfillment This is the peak. Readers at this level don’t just enjoy your work. They credit it with changing something. A better fantasy decision. A sharper way of watching a game. A new way of thinking about sports media. They evangelize. They gift subscriptions. They tell people about you without being asked. You get there by collecting and sharing those stories. Reader wins. Outcomes. Real-world impact that started with your newsletter. Build a framework readers can actually apply on their own. Write an annual state of the publication, an honest look back and a real preview of what’s coming. Fulfillment isn’t a content strategy. It’s what happens when all four levels below it are solid. You can’t shortcut it. Where to Start Figure out where you actually are in this hierarchy. Be honest about it. If readers can’t count on you to show up, start there. If you’re consistent but writing like a brand account, work on your voice. If you’ve found your voice but readers don’t talk to each other, build the infrastructure. Each level unlocks the next one. Trying to build community without trust doesn’t work. Chasing fulfillment without authenticity doesn’t work. Build the foundation. The rest follows. -ROBBIN MARX Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe [https://sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The Sports Writer’s Content Ecosystem on Substack

I’ve been watching sports writers on Substack grind themselves out trying to produce everything at once. Long-form articles every week. Notes every day. Newsletters on a schedule they set when they were feeling ambitious. Most of them burn out before they get traction. The thing is, you don’t need unlimited hours. You need a system that works inside the time you actually have. Two hours a week is a real number. I’ve tested it. It works when you build the week right. Here’s how to do it. HERE IS THE LINK TO THE RESOURCE https://sport-stackers-ecosystem-guide.netlify.app/ [https://sport-stackers-ecosystem-guide.netlify.app/] Start With Notes, Not the Newsletter Most writers go straight to the long-form article. I get it. That’s where we feel most like writers. But that’s also why so many people stall. Notes are where the real growth happens on Substack right now. They’re short. They’re fast. And they tell you exactly what your readers actually care about before you spend three hours writing something nobody responds to. Write three short notes early in the week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday works. Each one is just a quick thought, an angle, a take you noticed mid-scroll. A press conference line that bugged you. A stat that told a different story than the highlights did. Post them. Watch what gets restacks. Watch what gets replies. The note that sparks conversation becomes your newsletter. The other two fade. That’s the whole point. The Writing Framework That Keeps It Simple Once you know which idea landed, you write the article. And when you sit down to write it, you don’t need to overthink structure. Start with a five-second moment. A play. A press conference clip. A number that made you stop. Something small and specific. Pull the reader into that moment first. Then extract the lesson. What does that moment actually tell you about the sport, the player, or the game when the cameras aren’t on? That’s your angle. That’s what makes your piece worth reading instead of the ten others covering the same game. Then connect it. Where does this land for someone who loves the sport or covers it themselves? What do they take away from reading your take on this? That’s the whole structure. A moment. A lesson. A connection. You can write a thousand words around that framework without staring at a blank screen for an hour. Show Your Process, Not Just Your Opinion A lot of writers think readers want hot takes. Some do. But what builds trust over time is showing how you actually think. Write a note about the film you watched before writing your last piece. Share the question nobody asked at the postgame presser. Tell readers what you noticed that didn’t make it into the final article. Use specific openers. “Yesterday I rewatched the third quarter and noticed something.” “After the final buzzer I went back and checked the shot chart.” Real timestamps. Real moments. That’s what separates your work from a thousand other sports opinions floating around. When you show your process, readers come back. They trust you. They start to feel like they’re watching you work, and that’s a relationship worth building. The Part That’s Actually Hardest The human posts are the ones most sports writers skip. I understand why. We got into this to write about the game. It can feel weird to write about anything else. But readers subscribe to people, not topics. Share the moment you fell in love with the sport. The game you watched as a kid. The player whose jersey you wore even though your friends thought it was a weird choice. Your actual opinion, especially the unpopular one. Your life outside the sport matters here too. Family. Music. Whatever you do when you’re not watching film. That stuff is part of who you are. Readers bond with who you are, and that bond is what makes them tell someone else about your newsletter. The Weekly Rhythm That Makes This Work Here’s a schedule that keeps you inside two hours a week. Monday: a sports note that shows your process. Tuesday: a human note that shares something real about you. Wednesday: another sports note, a different angle. Thursday: your newsletter drops, built around whichever note landed. Friday: one more human note, something light, something personal. That’s it. The newsletter almost writes itself because you’ve already tested the idea twice by the time you sit down to write it. You can move things around. Make it fit your sport, your schedule, your style. The point isn’t the specific days. The point is having a rhythm so you’re never starting from zero. What This Changes Most sports writers I talk to feel behind. Like they should be doing more. Posting more. Writing longer. Going deeper. The writers I’ve seen grow on Substack aren’t doing more. They’re doing less, but doing it consistently. They’re showing up every week with something small and real and useful. And over time, readers notice that. Two hours is enough. A note on Monday that becomes a newsletter on Thursday. A human moment on Friday that reminds someone why they subscribed. That’s a complete week. You don’t need a media company. You need a system that works inside the life you already have. -Robbin Marx PS Here’s a $20 Buck Gift from Kalshi and easy way to support the community http://kalshi.com/bleav [http://kalshi.com/bleav] Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe [https://sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The 5 Ingredients Every New Substack Writer Needs

I was sitting in my kitchen one afternoon thinking about how I explain Substack to people who are just starting out. Every time I try to break it down, it sounds like a lot. And it is a lot. But I realized it’s not that different from learning to cook. You don’t need a hundred techniques. You need a solid recipe. Five ingredients, in the right order, and you’ve got something worth serving. This is that recipe. Ingredient 1: The Base Stock Before you write a single word, spend time just exploring. Go find 10 publications in your niche. Read them. Take notes. What format are they using? How often are they posting? What tone do they write in? You’re not trying to copy anyone. You’re trying to understand the space you’re walking into. Where is there a gap nobody is filling? What are readers looking for that they can’t find? Think of it like walking into a kitchen you’ve never been in before. You’d check the equipment. You’d see what ingredients are stocked. You wouldn’t just start cooking. You’d look around first. Do that on Substack. The writers who last did the research before they published anything. ACCESS THE FREE RESOURCE PAGE HERE https://substack-recipe-sport-stackers.netlify.app/ [https://substack-recipe-sport-stackers.netlify.app/] Ingredient 2: The Secret Spice This is where most writers go wrong. They try to write for everybody. And when you write for everybody, you connect with nobody. The secret spice is your ideal reader. Not a demographic segment. One specific person. I want you to name them. Literally give them a name. Mine is Kevin. He’s named after my late brother (RIP Big Bro). Anytime I sit down to create something, I’m writing for Kevin. Now here’s the part people skip. They stop at the demographics. Age, location, income. That’s fine. But I’m more interested in the psychographics. What does Kevin think about at 2am? What does he scroll for the second he gets in line somewhere? What does he want that he can’t find anywhere? When you know that about your reader, your writing changes. It gets specific. It gets personal. And readers feel that. They feel like the publication was built for them. That’s when things start to move. Ingredient 3: The Signature Dish Nobody else has your combination of experience, perspective, and voice. That’s the one competitive advantage nobody can take from you. So what’s your angle? Not just your topic. Your angle. What do you know about this subject that most other writers covering it don’t? Write it out in one clean sentence. Your publication’s one-sentence promise. For my fantasy basketball community, it’s three words: dominate your league. Simple. Direct. Speaks exactly to the person I’m writing for. Don’t overthink it. The best version is usually the shortest version. And make your publication name just as clear. Skip the clever wordplay. Make it obvious what you do and who it’s for. Ingredient 4: The Prep Station Before you publish anything publicly, have at least four articles written and ready. If you’re planning to post weekly, that’s a month of content in the bank before your first subscriber ever shows up. Most people launch with one piece and spend every week scrambling. That scramble is miserable. It makes writing feel like a chore. It puts you in a reactive, pressured headspace every single week. Write the four pieces first. Get trusted eyes on them before anything goes live. A friend. A family member. Someone in a community you trust. Get private feedback first. Then launch confident, not hesitant. And once you do launch, keep adding to that bank. One or two pieces a week so the reservoir never runs dry. That’s a completely different relationship with your work than most writers have. ACCESS TO WRITESTACK SCHEDULING TOOL bit.ly/writestack [https://www.writestack.io/?via=robbin] Ingredient 5: The Daily Simmer This last one is what actually compounds. * Five Substack notes every day. * Five restacks. * Five comments. That’s fifteen actions a day. Spread them out if you need to. But be consistent. There’s no magic follower count you need to hit before this starts working. It works from day one. Think about a good stew. The longer it cooks on low heat, the more flavor it builds. You can’t rush it and get the same result. This method works the same way. The compounding effect is real and it separates writers who grow from writers who stall. The writers who grow on Substack show up daily. Every day, in the notes feed, in the comments, in other people’s work. That daily presence is what makes the difference. How They Work Together These five ingredients don’t work in isolation. The base stock shapes who you write for. The secret spice sharpens your angle. The signature dish defines what you prep. The prep station sets you up to launch right. And the daily simmer keeps you visible while all of it builds. It’s a full system. Every piece depends on the others. Start with the base stock. Build from there. Don’t rush any of it. I’m genuinely excited to see what you put out. Now let’s cook up! -Robbin Marx Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe [https://sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Substack Just Changed Its Homepage. Here’s What That Means for You.

Something changed on Substack and I want to make sure you see it. When someone visits a publication on mobile, they’re not landing on an article archive. They’re landing on a notes feed. It looks like an X profile. That’s not an accident. Substack is telling you exactly what they want writers to do. Over the last 90 days, about 32 million new subscribers landed on the platform. That’s not from SEO. That’s not from outside ads. That’s people coming to Substack looking for writers. And the way they’re finding writers is through notes. I think a lot of writers are sleeping on this. The Notes Feed Is Now Your Front Door Think about what it means for your notes feed to be the first thing someone sees when they land on your publication. Your latest articles aren’t the hook anymore. Your notes are. And if you haven’t posted a note in two weeks, that’s what a new reader sees when they show up. Substack’s algorithm is also rewarding consistency here. Writers who post notes daily are getting pushed out to more people. Small input, compounding reach over time. That’s a real thing happening right now on the platform. I’ve seen writers build their subscriber count almost entirely inside Substack through notes. They’re posting consistently, showing up daily, and the platform is doing the distribution for them. No other platforms. No ads. Just notes. Video Is the Part Most Writers Are Ignoring Scroll through your notes feed and count the videos. There are more than there were six months ago. Significantly more. Substack TV just rolled out on certain platforms, and the direction is clear. They want to compete with YouTube. Whether they get there or not, the signal right now is that video gets preferential reach. The platform is actively pushing video creators higher in the feed. Most writers don’t make video. That’s the opportunity. If you’re willing to post even a short, simple video note, you’re standing out in a feed that’s mostly text. You don’t need a studio or an editor. A phone and something real to say is enough. Images outperform plain text too, so if video feels like too much right now, start with a photo or a graphic. Anything that breaks the scroll. The Feature Nobody’s Talking About Here’s the one that I keep bringing up because I think it’s genuinely underused. Chat. Once someone finds you through a note, the goal is to keep them around. And the writers who are best at retention are the ones building actual conversations with their readers. Chat is how you do that on Substack. Most creators online are broadcasting. One direction. Post something, move on. Chat flips that. Readers respond. You respond back. It becomes a real thread. And readers who feel like they’re part of a conversation stick around longer than readers who just consume. If you’re trying to build any kind of paid tier or revenue stream down the road, community isn’t optional. It’s the foundation. People pay to stay in rooms where they feel seen. Starting one chat thread a week is enough. One question. Let people respond. Show up in the replies. That’s the whole thing. Three Things That Actually Move the Needle I don’t want this to feel like a list of homework. But if you’re trying to figure out where to focus this week, here’s what I’d do. Post three to five notes a day. Short, real, consistent. Doesn’t have to be long. A thought, an observation, something from your week. The consistency matters more than the length. Start one chat thread this week. Pick a question your readers actually have something to say about. Reply to every person who responds. That’s it. Find one writer to collaborate with this month. Maybe you swap recommendations. Maybe you do a live together. Maybe you just start a conversation that becomes something. One collab a month is a reasonable pace and it compounds over time. What the Shift Is Actually Saying Substack built the notes feed, prioritized video, and added chat for a reason. They want the platform to be a place people stay, not just a place they visit to read one article. The window feels open right now. I’m watching writers grow faster on Substack than anywhere else, and most of them are doing it by just showing up in the feed every day. That’s accessible. You can do that. Robbin Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe [https://sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Why Substack Belongs at the Top of Your List Right Now

I’ve talked to a lot of writers who scroll past Substack every time someone brings it up. They’re already managing Instagram, TikTok, maybe YouTube. Another platform feels like more weight. I get it. But I want to share what changed my mind, and why I keep coming back to this one. You Actually Own What You Build Every platform you’re on right now, the followers belong to the platform. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. They can ban your account, change the algorithm, or shut down tomorrow. Your audience disappears with them. On Substack, every subscriber hands you their email address. That list is yours. You can take it anywhere. Nobody can touch it. That’s not a small thing. I’ve spent years watching creators pour everything into platforms they don’t own. Substack is the first place I’ve felt like I’m building something that actually belongs to me. It’s Not Just for Writers This is the part people get wrong most often. If you hear “newsletter platform” and think “not for me,” stay with me for a second. Podcasters can host their show directly on Substack. Video creators can embed their content there. Coaches, analysts, journalists, people documenting their lives for their kids. It works for all of them. Substack also has native integration with YouTube and LinkedIn. Your content from those platforms can live there too. It’s becoming a real hub for multimedia work, and most people still haven’t figured that out. Free vs. Paid and Why Annual Matters You set the rules on Substack. Free content builds your list. Paid content builds your income. Some writers keep their newsletter free and put their podcast behind a paywall. Some flip it. It’s your call. Monthly subscriptions get a lot of the attention, at $5, $10, $20 a month. But I’d encourage you to think about annual recurring revenue instead. Here’s a real example. If your monthly rate is $20, and you offer annual access at $45 or $50 total, that’s a deal that’s hard to pass up. Twelve months for less than three months at full price. People take that offer. Stacking value matters too. We give our paid members 555 notes templates from The Creator’s Vault, plus a free entry into The Draftys, our sports writing awards. When someone looks at what they get, the price stops feeling like a decision. Notes Are Where Growth Actually Happens This is the part of Substack most people underestimate. Notes is the built-in social feed. Short posts, reactions, ideas. It runs on its own algorithm and it’s how new readers find you. Not through your newsletter. Through notes. Restacking is a huge part of this. When you restack someone else’s note, you’re sending their work to your audience. When they restack yours, their readers see your name. That’s real growth and it costs nothing. The Money Isn’t Based on Views This one matters more than people realize. On YouTube and TikTok, a bad month means a bad check. Your income moves with your view count. On Substack, your income moves with your subscriber count. Those are very different things. A hundred paying subscribers at $10 a month is $1,000 every single month, whether you went viral or not. Brands are also starting to take Substack seriously. PR agencies are actively looking for newsletter-specific campaigns right now. There aren’t many engaged Substack creators yet. That gap is your opening. A small, loyal list can bring in real sponsorship money, and engaged subscribers are worth more to a brand than passive social media followers. The Timing Is Still Right The best time to start was probably two years ago. The second-best time is right now. Most niches on Substack still have low competition. The people following you on other platforms are already looking for a reason to migrate. They want something more personal, more direct, less noisy. The community energy on Substack is also different from most platforms. People actually support each other. Writers recommend each other’s publications. Lists grow together. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’ve been in this space for a while. What This Means for You Pick one topic. Set up your profile. Write your first post and make it free. Show up at least once a week. That’s it to start. The first post doesn’t have to be great. It just has to exist. Every week you wait is a week someone else in your niche gets further down the road. That’s not meant to scare you. It’s just true. Start small. Stay consistent. Build the thing you actually own. -Robbin Marx Join SportStackers.com [http://SportStackers.com] Get full access to Sport Stackers: A Community for Substack Sports Creators at sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe [https://sportstackers.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]